This I Believe

When I was six I had lost my dad and grandma in a car accident while the other driver that hit them survived. Since I was little I really didn’t understand the concept of death but now that I’m older I realize how important it is. Life goes on around me and I look at how I may impact people with just a simple glance at them because you never know what may come because of it. I remember the first time I talked to my best friends. We were at a Girl’s Night Out thing after school at the YMCA. Barely had I spoken to them but I made an impact since they thought I was completely loud and obnoxious and they wondered how a person so little could be so crazy. We never really talked since I had my group of friends and they had their own group but every once in a while we did. Girl’s Night Out ended and then a year later I was in a meeting for a trip to Canada and I didn’t recognize them at first but then they came over and reintroduced themselves to me. We weren’t that good of friends but we decided to room together for the trip and we had a blast. When we came home from the trip we were completely inseparable and that summer was one long slumber party. Either I would stay overnight at their house or they would stay at mine.

Now that we are older we don’t have as many slumber parties and we do have other friends that we hang out with. But no matter what we are still going to be the best of friends even if miles separate us or we don’t talk for years. In our hearts we are connected and that can never change. This just goes to show that even if you say or do the smallest thing it may impact a person more than you know. You may even become their best friend or their worst enemy depending on how it all goes.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.